A recent Quintura blog has turned up a story from Russian business daily Vedomosti, which reports an investment by Digital Sky Technologies in Sape.ru. The investment, of which the value and details have not been made public, was completed in early 2008 and gives Digital Sky a 25.1% stake in the Russian link exchange service.
Sape.ru (www.sape.ru)
Sape.ru is one of the leading link exchange services in Russia, boasting 196,000 web sites and 180,000 users. The service is used by web site owners to buy and sell advertising with others on the network, optimizing their advertising dollars through targeted placement of links.
Sape.ru was established in 2006 using the link exchange model for web advertising. This model is touted as being superior to search engine advertisement, a venue which has become bloated and seemingly less profitable in recent years.
Quintura lists the three main competitors of Sape.ru as LinkFeed.ru (26,000 users and 31,000 web-sites), MailLink.ru ( 33,000 users and 87,000 web-sites), and XAP.ru ( 85,000 users).
Digital Sky Technologies
Digital Sky Technologies Limited is a Russian investment house with assets between EUR 1 and 2 billion. The company is the minority stakeholder in Russian social networking sites Odnaklassniki.ru and Vkontakte, as well as recruitment site Headhunter.
The company focuses on investment opportunities throughout Russia and the CEE markets.
March 12, 2009
Central & Eastern Europe, Investment, Private Equity News, Russia